Tweet

How well do you treat your customers

Written by: Mark Gwilliam

Article Overview: Think about the last time you had a negative buying experience. Did it take forever for your call to be answered? Did an e-commerce site fail to respond to your email query? Were you left with a good first impression?

How well do you treat your customers

Negative buying experiences are almost always linked to poor customer service. Good customer service is essential for all businesses and giving it shouldn’t be seen as an extra. It isn’t difficult to provide if you follow a few basic rules:

1. Commit to quality customer service.
Everyone in your company needs to be devoted to creating a positive and memorable experience to your customers. Always aim to exceed customers’ expectations…may be even under-promise and over-deliver. Think what impression that would leave on your customers.

2. Always (and I mean ALWAYS) provide what you promise.
Fail to do this and you’ll lose creditability straight away…and possiblty the customer as well. If you promise
to provide an estimate within 48 hours, get the quote out within 48 hours! I have lost count of the people and businesses that don’t keep their promises and I am sure you can relate to these types of annoying experiences. If you can’t keep your promise, at least have the courtesy to let your customer know before-hand. They will appreciate this.
Recently our swimming pool’s salt chlorinator packed up just before our relatives arrived from the UK. Our regular pool service provider promised to fix it before the Christmas (and our summer holiday) break. Days went by and no sight of any repair. After 4 telephone messages later, I gave up and left them an “assertive” message advising them I will no longer deal with them.

3. Listen to your customers
Be a sponge…your business may depend on it. Try to learn as much as you can about your customers so you can tailor your service approach to their needs (not yours!) and their buying habits. Listen attentively to their concerns and complaints…they will be doing you a favour if you can correct the problem before you run out of customers!
We regularly send our post job surveys to establish how we could improve our service. You could do the same by offering a small incentive for your customers to return the survey.

4. Know your products
Conveying knowledge about your products and services will help you win your customers’ trust and confidence. Try to anticipate the types of questions your customers will ask.

5. Focus on making customers, not sales
Salespeople often, especially those being paid commission, focus on volume instead of the quality of the sale.
Remember, that keeping a customer is often more important than closing the sale. Research clearly shows that it costs much more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an existing one.

6. Don’t leave customers waiting
Repairs, call backs and emails need to be handled with a sense of urgency. Most customers want immediate resolution and if you give it them, you’ll probably win their repeat business. Research shows that 95% of dissatisfied customers will do business with a company again if their complaint is resolved on the spot.
We have a policy that insists that customer emails and calls are responded to within 4 hours.

Related Articles
  All I Ask...
  Date Your Customers - They'll Keep Coming Back
  When in doubt, disaggregate
  Sales Tip – Selling Without Follow-up with Your Customers or Prospects Gets Poor Sales Results
  Respect is the main aspect to life and business

Article Tags: buying habits, christmas, experiences, favour, good customer service, job, memorable experience, pool service, poor customer service, promises, quality customer service, relatives, service approach, service provider, sponge, summer holiday, surveys, swimming pool, telephone messages



Related Forum Posts
Re: Twitter vs Facebook - True Terri. Sometimes it backfires too. But, I just realized that if you can talk to potential target audience, it can give you a good traffic to your site. Is that right? But Is there any norm / guideline which twitter has if you talk to 10 people in less than 1 hr, do they treat as a spam? How does twitter treat a constant communicator is spamming? Do you know anything about constant communication and traffic building mechanism? Thanks, Robert
Re: Hi from sunny Spain - Ritz100, Seems like you're going about it the right way with us. Not sure why someone would treat you poorly, or maybe you did it a little different and learned from it. Either way, we're happy you're here and hope we will be of help to you in some way. You have a great cause. In the U.S. we have commercials with one of our popular singers singing a sad song and they show the forlorn animals that have been mistreated. It makes me cry every time. We also have a show on cable that has true stories with various rescue leagues. I can't believe how some people treat animals. They are so helpless. I have a cat now (Used to live on a farm and had LOTS of pets) and he stands on his hind legs to reach for a hug as soon as I walk in the door each night. So sweet!! Not sure why I shared that.. I guess because it almost seems he has a personality. Keep up the good work. Hope to hear from you soon on the forum!
Re: Don't waste your life trying to impress other people. - Evan's statement is great. If we just relax and not worry about what other people think, this does not mean that we need to rude or abrasive to others we still need to treat them as we ourselves want to be treated. Really whatever others think of us it is only their opinion. MichelleJ
Re: Marketing to Wealthy Consumers - Hi Russell - lots of great ideas so far! I haven't seen talk about referrals yet though. It's the most powerful way to reach more wealthy consumers if you already have an established base. I'm assuming that your customers may be repeat clients but there is a long time period between purchases (they don't come every month for a new item). Have you tried any referral programs for existing customers or thought of a way to stay in touch with your customers on a regular basis so at least they keep your company top of mind?
Re: Drones work at franchises - [quote="BuzzAroundBooks":35m2vhk2]I don't think there's anything wrong with working for someone else, but I [u:35m2vhk2]HATE[/u:35m2vhk2] the idea of being nothing more than a non-thinking [u:35m2vhk2]replaceable drone[/u:35m2vhk2]. We're all human beings, so why do franchises treat their employees like "worker bees" (i.e. work them till they quit or die or at least wish for their own deaths)?[/quote:35m2vhk2] WOW! I think your point of view is really harsh and not objective at all. You obviously had a terrible experience working for McDonalds but it is just ONE bad experience... not even from the point of view of the franchisee or manager of the place, but from your point of view as an employee. McDonalds may have "military like" operations but that's probably what took them where they are today. While some companies may use employees as "replaceable drones", I think most of them know it's in their best interest treating their employees well. High employee turnover is VERY expensive as you may know. Also, when you say [i:35m2vhk2]"franchises treat their employees like "worker bees" (i.e. work them till they quit or die or at least wish for their own deaths)"[/i:35m2vhk2], I think you are generalizing your point of view which I believe only relates to the fast food industry. Yes, McDonalds might use their employees but I REALLY doubt they wish for their own death. Besides, franchising is NOT only fast food. Many business services franchises (sign a rama, etc...) rely a lot on the knowledge of their employees and treat them very well. You make franchises sound like evil corporations here. Let me remind you that most franchises are actually small businesses. In most cases, your local Quiznos is owned and operated by someone who put a lot of money on the table to be granted the right to use a trademark and operate under a certain business name. I understand you couldn't see yourself as a franchisee. Well, that's fine, you don't have the right profile, but please moderate yourself and realize franchising is the right way of going for some people who may not have any business/management experience and who want to work for themselves but not by themselves.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Top 5 Qualities in an Outsourcing Company

You Have A Website What Now

Google Panda and Your Search Engine Rankings

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.